Hermione's Greatest Secret
by DistractoGirl
Summary: Hermione has a secret, who knows about it and what is she doing with Snape in the dark? N/B - This is a Pre- Order of the Phoenix Fic. Don't expect it to Tie in with OOtP...
1. Meetings and Malfoy

All characters and subject matter taken from and used in the following are from Harry Potter and therefore owned by J. K. Rowling. 

A/N: this is my first fic and I would be grateful if you could be nice about it. It developed through the encouragement from my good friend Serena Snape's fan fic – all credit to that author and if you have not read her work then you have missed something.

Hermione Granger walked up to the common room with Draco Malfoy and Professor Severus Snape on her mind. To most Gryffindors this would be considered highly unusual but Hermione knew something that she knew would make her special in the future. Malfoy, the irritating little weasel nearly made her blow it today in potions when he asked her about the digitoxins in the foxglove flower, a subject in which the students are not supposed to be versed in until Seventh year. As she was in her sixth year, it would be most unusual for even her to know about that. In fact knowing about the foxglove flower may suggest a personal relationship with a person who would also know this and, in her case, only one person could fit this, Severus. Nobody must know her relationship with Severus - on one hand it would violate almost the entire teacher-pupil communication rulebook and on the other hand knowing what Hermione did about Severus it was a danger for her to get too close.

"Miss Granger?" Talking of Severus Snape, here he came now, robes billowing. "I've been wanting a word, Hermione." He whispered in his silky voice once they were at close quarters, "Please can you be at my office at -" Hermione heard footsteps and attempted a normal conversation,

"Yes Professor Snape I understand that you specified the essay was to be only two rolls of parchment but -" Her voice trailed off as Professor Flitwick rounded a corner and the true conversation could be resurrected. 

"Ten o'clock," murmured Severus and swept off before Hermione had a chance to respond. That was odd, thought Hermione, 'he has never asked me to meet him after dark before.' she decided to go to dinner and see her friends and forget about the request until later that night.

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Hermione was preoccupied and this meant she wandered without purpose. She found herself somewhere she had not been for a while, the walls lined with extravagant pictures of food and therefore she knew she was near the kitchens. There was someone trying to make the smallest amount of noise possible whilst still moving around the next corner and so, stealth being one of her specialities at training, she approached with care. Then she saw something silvery blond reflecting on the glossy painting in the corner 'Ah! So that is who it is' she thought.

"Good Afternoon, Mr Malfoy," She said in her imitation of Professor Sprout as she turned the corner. The only teacher she could justify being down this corridor at this time was Professor Sprout, the Head of Hufflepuff House - the entrance to the Hufflepuff common room being twelve feet from where Draco was lurking. Malfoy jumped and spun around trying to look innocent.

"Granger," Malfoy said attempting to keep in place his Slytherin sneer but not quite managing with the shock of her arrival still showing on his face. "Why, may I ask, is a Mudblood like you wandering around the kitchen corridors? Surely the _wonderful _Granger Mudblood can't be lost." At this Hermione whipped out her wand.

"How dare you?" she snarled, " I am a better witch than many in this school. I could curse you right now and no one would be any the wiser." Hermione paused for breath briefly but before Malfoy could respond she went on, "You have no idea who you are dealing with." 

Malfoy seemed to get the message and almost visibly shrank at the approach of a witch with more power than most could ever dream of. 

"You have no idea who you are dealing with Malfoy" Hermione said again with an authority quite unlike her normal passive gentle self. "So don't even try to interfere with my affairs."

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A/N: this is just the first chapter and, depending on good reviews and depending on whether I can see this going anywhere, I will add chapters. Review and ask for more because those who do not ask do not get!


	2. Secrets and Spies

All characters and subject matter taken from and used in the following are from Harry Potter and therefore owned by J. K. Rowling.  
  
A/N: it must be said that I owe most of the writing of this to my biology lessons, if it weren't for revision I never would have got over my writers block. I am aware that this fic is going very slowly to its climax but I think that good things come to those who wait. I will write the next instalment by next week sometime, if people still want it. Right now to my thank yous: thank you to Serena Snape my unbelievably good beta reader and to all those people who added to the story line, they were very helpful in my hour of need. In addition, thanks to those of you out there who reviewed my first chapter it gave me courage to write more.  
  
  
  
Malfoy walked away from his encounter with Hermione rattled. He had never been scared by a female Gryffindor before, let alone a mudblood. He walked into the Slytherin common room after giving the password, this month it was "Salazar", and noticed a beetle on the back of a chair. Not that this was particularly unusual for it was a warm day with beetles getting everywhere. Malfoy scrutinised this specimen and then smiled and said aloud,  
  
"There's no one here. Come on, tell me the news." With that he stepped away from the chair and the beetle took flight. It then transformed into an old friend, Rita Skeeter, today in lurid orange robes with blood red nails. She sat down on the chair she had occupied as a beetle and grinned.  
  
"Hello Malfoy," she said cordially, "I have some news for you." Malfoy and Rita had been working together to get Hermione Granger expelled since she had destroyed their plan to ruin Hagrid.  
  
"Well, what is it?" pressed Malfoy, hardly able to suppress his curiosity.  
  
"Investigative reporting doesn't come cheap, you know, Malfoy. I want something for my efforts."  
  
"Ok, ok, I give in. How much?" he said carefully.  
  
Rita was also a shrewd businesswoman so they argued for a while before settling on a price neither was particularly happy about. After telling him about the meeting that night, Rita told Malfoy a few snippets of conversation she had overheard at the M.O.M., which seemed overly interested in the exploits of a 16-year-old witch.  
  
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Hermione made her way to the Great Hall reprimanding herself. Her confrontation with Malfoy, while satisfying, had been downright dangerous. She had been so close to revealing what she is when Malfoy had got scared and run away.  
  
She reached the Great Hall and met Ron and Harry.  
  
"Are you alright?" Ron enquired carefully, knowing that Hermione had been working very hard recently she might snap at him if her showed any signs of interfering.  
  
"Fine!" Hermione said brightly and started on the delicious-looking fish and chips which had just materialised before them.  
  
"Are we going to visit Hagrid tonight?" wondered Harry.  
  
"Not tonight" Hermione said, stifling a huge fake yawn.  
  
"Yeah, maybe we could all do with an early night, hey Harry?" agreed Ron.  
  
The friends returned to the common room at eight thirty, which left Hermione plenty of time to prepare for her meeting with Snape. The boys said goodnight and went to their dormitories at nine, leaving Hermione contemplate the immediate future.  
  
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Hermione approached the dungeons full of apprehension. She was tired due to the lateness of the appointment and the secrecy of the request. She had never been down here after dark and the corridor was filled with flickering shadows from the candles and statues which lined it. She was so nervous about the encounter with Snape that she arrived ten minutes early and had the misfortune to meet Malfoy emerging after an extra tuition session with Snape.  
  
"Granger?" Malfoy stuttered weakly still remembering their kitchen corridor meeting.  
  
"Leave us Mr Malfoy," came the silky but firm voice of Severus Snape, "Ah, Miss Granger - all ready to start work, I see." Malfoy was still standing outside but Snape cast a soundproofing spell on his room so that try as Malfoy might he would not be able to hear a thing.  
  
The next hour passed in a blur for Hermione, as her teacher and mentor put her through rigorous tests to check she was up to the job in hand. Although intelligent, Hermione's young body still needed a large amount of training to be able to perform the tasks she would no doubt have to perform in the near future. Who better to teach her than the person who has been using the same skills for the last sixteen years of his life?  
  
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	3. Discoveries and Danger

All characters and subject matter taken from and used in the following are from Harry Potter and therefore owned by J. K. Rowling, excluding Christina Spinnet who is entirely my own invention and is just there for convenience sake.  
  
A/N: Thanks to Serena again and be warned this fic is going to take a while to finish, a bit like the latest Harry Potter book! Thanks for all of you who are bearing with me, my creative juices are flowing and chapter four should be up and about by the end of the week. Happy reading!  
  
  
  
An hour later Hermione was still lying on her four-poster bed catching her breath. She had not expected her training to be so exhausting, and began to wish that the Ministry of Magic had chosen someone else. She was no longer sure whether she was up to the job in hand.  
  
"I'm not scared of some two-bit Slytherin supporter," she whispered aloud. She knew she was lying as she said this but it helped her get her nerve back she refused to take up Fudge's kind offer of, 'If you get too scared or find it too much hard work we will all understand and not think worse of you if you back out.' She knew she would never be able to forgive herself if she gave up fighting just because she felt a little worn out. She reached through the scarlet hangings and checked her wristwatch. It was just passed midnight and she knew no matter how worn out she was she would not sleep until at least two. She got up and checked the Marauder's Map, which Harry had leant her last week to help her with late night study. Hermione considered what she could do; homework? No, she'd finished it all because of her late night rendezvous with Severus. The only other thing she could think of was to practise the skills shown to her that night. Like a shadow, she went down the spiralling staircase to common room. Finding it devoid of human life and light she used her wand to light the multitude of candles that lined the walls and conjured a target. She knew that perfection of most of the new skills required accuracy. She positioned herself two metres away from the target and started with the easier spells. As she did this, she thought of her meeting with Malfoy earlier that day and her threat. She shuddered thinking of how close she had come to harming him; 'he really isn't that bad,' she thought, 'he just thinks being in Slytherin gave him the right to insult everyone else.  
  
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Harry and Ron met Hermione at breakfast the next day and didn't notice she'd been up most of the night - in fact to them she appeared quite refreshed.  
  
"Did you enjoy your long sleep, Hermione?" Ron said looking much better himself.  
  
Hermione had to bite back a laugh as she answered with a remarkably chirpy,  
  
"Yes, you?"  
  
Harry, who had been attacking his bacon and eggs as if they were going to run off his plate, looked up and asked  
  
"Are you two looking forward to the Quidditch match today?"  
  
Hermione got the feeling that Harry had got as much sleep as she had but, unlike her, he was feeling the after effects of a night spent worrying.  
  
"It's only Slytherin, you'll beat them hands down again Harry!" grinned Ron, "You're the best Seeker any team has had since Viktor Krum, and you've only ever lost one match against them."  
  
"All the same that's one too many." said Harry glumly.  
  
"Don't worry, Harry," Hermione soothed, "the conditions are perfect and you have been practising on your Firebolt since the second week of term!" All the same Hermione began to worry on Harry's behalf, not because he might lose (she was sure he wouldn't) but because the match was a perfect chance for someone to attack Harry and make it look entirely like an accident - she knew how easy it would be, it had happened in his first year. This time it was Hermione, not Severus, who would have to save him.  
  
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Hermione and Ron joined Ginny and the rest of Hogwarts streaming out to the Quidditch pitch. Ginny looked worried.  
  
"Don't worry Ginny, Harry will be absolutely fine, he's got fantastic conditions for this game and the Slytherin seeker's not as experienced as Harry." Hermione shouted over the excitement of the rest of the crowd.  
  
As they took their seats, they saw Harry, the newly appointed captain of the Gryffindor team, head to the centre to shake hands with the captain of Slytherin, universally known as Warrington. Hermione scanned Harry's team as they took off, he had the two beaters who had been there longer than him, the Weasley brothers, he had also recruited some new blood, the previously seamless chaser team had been split up due to the fact that two of the girls had left last year. As Lee Jordan took up the commentary, Hermione relaxed somewhat. She knew there was no danger - the weather was bright and cloudless, removing any chance that Harry might fall from his broom.  
  
"Spinnet flying like a bullet up there straight at the goalposts, this first year is showing the real Spinnet family talent." Christina Spinnet was the younger sister of Alicia who had joined the Wigtown Wanderers when she left Hogwarts last year. "Spinnet scores!"  
  
Gryffindor cheers filled the air; the Slytherins were booing and hissing their goalkeeper. As Adrian Pucey, a Slytherin seventh year headed for the Gryffindor goal posts to the sounds of great delight from the Slytherin supporters, Hermione nudged Ron and pointed at Harry, who had gone into one of his now trademark sharp dives. Hermione put her three-year-old ominoculars to her eyes and focused on the space below Harry. Seeing the snitch, she screamed, "Come on Harry, you're so close!" As Harry pulled out of his dive, the snitch was clasped in his hand. The Gryffindors started to yell the score as one, "One hundred and sixty to Zero!" With this, they headed back to the Gryffindor tower knowing that Fred and George Weasley would be stealing food from the kitchens for the victory party at this very moment.  
  
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A/N: I am very sorry for the destruction of the noble game of Quidditch in the previous pages, I have never been a very good action writer and although no Harry Potter story is complete without Quidditch, my commentary is fairly bad. Once again sorry and review my work or you will get no more. 


	4. Moving

All characters and subject matter taken from and used in the following are from Harry Potter and therefore owned by J. K. Rowling.  
  
A/N: Well here we are again! Sorry this fic really is turning into the fifth Harry Potter book, longer and longer then no news, ah well no news is good news and I like to think it will be ready before next year sometime. anyway here is chapter 4 please R&R.   
  
Hermione walked to Dumbledore's office feeling worried, after all she was about to ask the most important man in her training something that only the bravest students dared to ask - and very few ever got what they had asked for. She reached the stone gargoyle that signified the entrance to the headmaster's office and looked around, "Pear drop" she commanded. As the goblin sprang to life to allow her past she heard a muffled gasp behind her. "Who's there?" she said earnestly - it was only a matter of time before she had to get to bed or be accompanied back to her sleeping quarters by a teacher, and she certainly didn't want that, "Who's there?" she asked more forcefully lighting her wand and pointing it the most likely hiding place.  
  
"Malfoy? Again?" she said in relief and slight amazement. The amazement was caused by the fact that she was trained to hear things other people couldn't hear and see things other people couldn't see and she had missed Malfoy - who had obviously been following her for sometime. "Yes it's me Granger," he said emerging with his usual sly grin in place. "Late night meetings with the potions teacher, and now knowing the password to the headmaster's office . if I didn't know better I would say that the battle against the dark forces has caused the so called good guys to enlist the help of Mudbloods." The drawling sarcasm in his voice and the way he appeared not to remember their little confrontation in the kitchen corridors truly irritated Hermione, "And if I didn't know better Mister Malfoy," she retorted letting the sarcasm linger in the air for a while before continuing the sentence with a smile, "I would say that hard-hearted Mudblood-hating Draco Malfoy was stalking me." Having said all she needed to and not wishing to be pushed into scaring Malfoy again she turned her back and started towards the moving spiral staircase up to Dumbledore's office.  
  
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Malfoy stood in his hidden corner gaping at Hermione's back, or rather where Hermione's back would have been if it hadn't departed up the spiralling staircase ten minutes ago. "Get a hold of yourself you stupid git." Malfoy muttered aloud as he tried to get his bearings and return to the Slytherin dungeons before a teacher came and escorted him back. "Talking to yourself again Malfoy?" Draco groaned inwardly, just what he wanted when he was standing outside the headmaster's office lost in thought, "Hello Weasel, is Potty not with you? You shouldn't leave the common room without an escort, you know, you could get damaged, and we wouldn't want precious Potty's favourite trinket harmed in anyway, would we now?" Malfoy turned his back on Weasley thinking 'you could have done better, you could have really gone for him, he was on his own you idiot!' Ron watched the Slytherin's back retreat in silence. He had been looking for Hermione and was on the brink of giving up when he'd spotted Malfoy and thought he would have some fun, but the annoying brat was walking away with a positively thoughtful expression.  
  
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An hour or so later Hermione emerged with a grin. She had some complex emotions simmering under the surface but the predominantly evident one was happiness. Her other emotions were a mixture of apprehension, excitement and worry. She was apprehensive about what Harry and Ron would say about the decision and the number of questions they would ask, maybe causing her to reveal her secret. But she was excited nonetheless, because the decision would make it easier to practise her skills in a quiet and stable environment. And finally she was just plain worried, she knew that Malfoy was still watching her, but she had her own ways of finding out where Rita Skeeter was and what exactly she was doing. All that research in the library about magical methods of bugging the year before last had not been fruitless. She had found a long forgotten spell to keep track of witches and wizards, which could be set to report at intervals between every minute and every month. But even though she could prevent Rita from finding the 'truth' - as the journalist would no doubt put it - Hermione was still worried that Malfoy might figure out exactly what she was doing and tell the whole school. That would destroy everything because to the rest of the school she was meant to be normal, happy, hardworking Hermione.  
  
As Hermione walked back to the common room she hoped the boys wouldn't be too upset about her plan. "Hey, Hermione!" Ron and Harry shouted in unison from behind her. She turned around and the two boys greeted her with a happier than usual hug and a more enthusiastic sounding, "What've you been up to?" "Never mind that," she said, a little worried about the boys' delighted mood "What are you two so, to put it mildly, happy about?" "Hermione, Hermione, Hermione, have you not learnt just to ignore our moods and get on with telling us where you've been?" said Harry, grinning wildly. It suddenly struck her, "You've been practising Cheering Charms again, haven't you?" She was glad that they would take her news better than if they had been bored, irritated or, trying to find out the Quidditch results, these being the usual moods Hermione could find Harry and Ron in when she returned from the library. "This is the perfect time to tell you then, I'm moving out." The last word hung in the air as if it was one of Professor Snape's last minute tests, uncomfortably surprising and unwanted. "What?" Harry exclaimed, as Ron gabbled, "Leaving Hogwarts? What is it? Have you been offered a job somewhere or are you just too clever for the teachers?" "Stop it both of you, you're overreacting, I am not moving out of school, I am just moving out of Gryffindor Tower. I thought that because I am still doing so many lessons it would be best if I had somewhere quite and peaceful to work, the library really is too noisy now with that Talking Book service for people who need to find things quickly!" "So you're not moving out of the castle?" Harry checked recovering first, and sounding more than a bit relieved. "But can we still come and visit and stuff?" "And 'stuff'?" repeated Hermione "what 'stuff'? All you two ever do is visit me and distract me from my work. But, yes, you will be able to come and see me, I'll only be a minute away in the locked room along to the right of the fat lady's portrait." After having assured them for the fifth time that she was not leaving the castle, that she was moving of her own free will and that no, she wouldn't stay in Gryffindor tower any longer just to please the two of them, Harry and Ron accepted the facts. They made a deal that they would collect Hermione for breakfast in the mornings and they would spend their Sundays together. This was in return for the boys not bothering Hermione on Saturdays or five o'clock in the evenings. It felt strange timetabling her free time as well as her school time but it had to be done, otherwise who knows what they would find if they simply walked in.  
  
Someone, most likely, a house-elf had already moved all her luggage to her new room but no doubt because of the confusion of four other girls' things in the dormitory, a few things had been left behind. Harry and Ron helped her pack her small bag with the remaining bits and pieces and followed her into her neatly furnished room. "Wow Hermione, this is some room," said Ron as he deposited Hermione's bag on the neat couch. "Well Professors Dumbledore and McGonagall thought it best if I had as much space to myself as possible, so I have a bedroom, a bathroom and a living room. I also have direct access to the house-elves in the kitchen in case I can't make it to a meal. I know," she exclaimed delightedly as a thought occurred to her, "why don't we use this great facility right now? It's dinnertime and we've definitely missed our chance for good food, so I extend to you the offer of a top class dinner in my new living room. What do you think?" she added with a smile. "Great!" the boys exclaimed together and the three sat down as one on a comfortable and roomy couch. Hermione went to the corner and reached in a box which nobody had noticed before. She cleared her throat and commanded, "Those who serve and wish to serve come before me now and serve." As a house-elf appeared and bowed a discussion was sparked about the incantation not needing a wand or to be translate into Latin. Hermione decided not to ruin the boys' dreams of all spells becoming English and not having to lug wands around. She, however, knew that a simple system of pipes made her voice travel to the kitchens and the only words house-elves could understand in this country were English! Once the meal was finished and the house-elves had cleared the remnants away Hermione stood up, "Well I am sure you two enjoyed that meal as much as I did and would like to go and get on with any homework you have. Please note that it is a Tuesday night and it is definitely after five o'clock. So please leave and let me work. I will see you tomorrow at breakfast." As the boys got up to leave by the door they had entered through she continued, "there is no need to go out and back on yourselves there is a perfectly serviceable passageway to the Gryffindor common room from my closet. I don't keep anything in the closet and if you go through the door which appears when you ask it to you will find a set of stairs leading to the Gryffindor common room. Goodnight." She finished with such strength on the 'goodnight' that Harry and Ron had no choice but to leave. As Hermione walked into the one room she hadn't included in the tour she once again wondered how Harry and Ron would react if she were to tell them her secret. The more she thought about it the more she wanted to and the more she knew it wouldn't be a good idea. She was glad however that the boys had reminded her of cheering charms. These small spells that left you with a great feeling of contentment. 'Harry has never been able to master them - when nervous, he always manages to overdo them,' she thought to her self with a chuckle. She walked to the corner of the room to one of the three pieces of furniture the room possessed - an old fashioned writing desk. She took out a list on which were written some very everyday things like chocolate, toffee and butterbeer, but the list also had some strange things on it, spells, objects and other things which all seemed to have the same effect, a warming happy feeling. To the list she added Cheering Charms, thus completing her 'comfort' list, this contained all the things that would make her feel better after prolonged confrontations with things like Dementors, and worse. Hermione moved into the centre of the room and took out her wand. Pointing it at a big old wardrobe next to the desk she muttered a spell which caused the doors to open and a target and other training aids to fly out and set themselves up. "Useful, really useful" she said, wondering just how long she would remain here.  
  
  
  
A/N: Thanks for your patience this is finally going somewhere! I just have to add R&R or you won't get any more from me. I'm sorry I need to know people care or I just can't write any more. 


	5. Secrets and Reports

All characters and subject matter taken from and used in the following are from Harry Potter and therefore owned by J. K. Rowling.  
  
A/N: Oh dear me! - it seems my brain has rather taken a holiday, never mind chapter 5 as promised and chapter six is on the way. Hmmmm it might be 2004 when it gets here but I'll try and make it sooner. Please read and review so I know how much you hate me for being slow and pointless. Also I'm trying something slightly new for me and have included things in italics, which are Hermione's thoughts. ENJOY:  
  
  
  
"HERMIONE!" a loud cry came from outside her front door. She roused herself into half wakefulness and analysed whether the voice could be ignored, it was definitely male and irritated, panicked or angry, the other thing she considered was; that the volume it wasn't hurting her tired - "HERMIONE!" -head, or maybe it was,  
  
"Who is it?" she asked waveringly and what in hell's name do you want she added in her head.  
  
"It's Ron and Harry," came the slightly quieter reply although still to loud in her sleep-deprived head, "let us in."  
  
What the F. she thought as she threw on her red silk dressing gown and slipped her feet, which at the moment seemed a little too far from her head, into what looked like the matching slippers and yet they didn't fit. Three minutes later she walked, with a clearer head and slippers the right way up on the right feet, into her living room, which in light of her mood had low and yet useful lighting. "Hermione?" a worry rose in her head as the voice sounded unsure, had she just done something that might have. OH! BLOODY HELL her head screamed why in the world didn't I think - aloud she said,  
  
"What's wrong?" and summoned the strength for the freezing spell to give her five minutes to remove the obvious 'I'm not who I have been pretending to be' make up from her face and to remove the magical blonde and ginger highlights and to wet her hair so she didn't have to explain it's lack of curl. Having done that she checked she hadn't missed anything else, hid the cocktail dress from last night's exploits and resumed the position she had been in as Harry and Ron 'defrosted'.  
  
"It's just you look so." started Ron and then did a double take, looked at her again and said, "Nothing, I think I imagined something." His voice tailed off in a pensive and confused manner. "So?" Hermione yawned the sleepy question at her friends - she had deliberately agreed the time for this assignment to optimise her recovery time but hadn't banked on these two waking her up for breakfast on the Saturday morning.  
  
"We just wondered if you wanted to come down to breakfast and then go and visit Hagrid with us." Said Harry he was looking at her strangely as if he knew there was something that she wasn't telling them.  
  
"Sure I'd love to," Hermione twittered inanely while thinking what she could say that might excuse her slightly if not very strange behaviour "just need to wake up, I know," she had just hit on a way to tidy and still keep them occupied, "you two go down and secure a good place for breakfast, get me a bit of everything I'm starving," hung over more like, "and I'll be down in ten minutes." "Sure thing" the boys said leaving her in peace.  
  
She ran around the three rooms that the boys would later inspect to see if there really was something that she wasn't telling them and cleared out anything even the tiniest bit out of the ordinary. Five minutes after she should have been breakfasting with the boys she was still running around in her underwear sorting things out, she finished and dressed and took advantage of a secret passage which had been installed entirely for her benefit - it lead from her room to the entrance hall. She therefore walked into the great hall little more that seven minutes late and looking as if she had not intended anything else. As she looked through the many people breakfasting late on the Saturday morning she noticed that Severus was one of them, the dinner last night that had kept both of them up until the early hours of this morning had obviously had as much of an affect on him as it had on her. As she took note of the completely exhausted looking Professor Snape he looked up and signalled to her that she would have to, once again, cut breakfast short.  
  
After a hurried explanation that Professor Snape had insisted she be there to help him demonstrate something to his year seven 'reprobates', his words, she had only used them for emphasis - or was she getting cynical, and Hagrid would have to be left until she had more time or at least until she had Snape off her back, Hermione bolted what would no doubt be breakfast and lunch and headed for the dungeons. As she went she mentally composed what she would report back to Severus about last night.  
  
The cocktail party had been her real chance to meet the main people backing and opposing her in her current role of Harry-protection. Of course the people from her department of the Ministry of Magic weren't apparent but they were there, the Department of Mysteries always had someone anywhere the leader of the renegade death eaters (Lucius Malfoy, naturally) and the so-called leader of the good guys (Cornelius Fudge, but everyone knew it was really Dumbledore who ran things) met up and had a party. These gatherings were the Department of Mysteries' way of showing the public they didn't suspect anyone whilst still refreshing the monitoring charms on each and every person in power. Hermione's job that night had been relatively simple, stay with the three new recruits to the Department of Magical Games and Sports (all Hermione's age and two graduating from Slytherin at Hogwarts last year the other from Ravenclaw) for her assignment Hermione had chosen not to use her real name, so instead of Hermione Granger aged 16 years (the only thing wrong with that identity was her age - she simply wasn't young anymore) she became Catarina Hayes (nothing like her birth certificate and the girl simply didn't exist except at Gringotts and at parties like this) an attractive eighteen year old (real age, less likely to trip up and she can drink) and prospective employee of the Department of Magical Games and Sports. Her appearance changed enough when she became herself anyway that make-up and a little bit of magical hairdressing had done wonders for a disguise.  
  
She made her way down the final corridor to snap's dungeons she heard a now familiar sneaking sound behind her, 'Give him a break,' she ordered her self, 'he hasn't had your training and he hasn't come up with any actual information yet.' She continued to walk as if she hadn't noticed then as she rounded the final corner she stopped turned and composed her face so as not to laugh at the surprised look on Malfoy's face when he realised she knew he had been following her. He turned the corner and there was the face.  
  
"Whoops Malfoy you seem to be stalking me again," Hermione said in her must innocent voice.  
  
"Why Granger, I had no idea you visited Professor Snape so often, is it possible you aren't as intelligent as everyone thinks?" came the reply dripping with emphasised contempt. There are many things Hermione would tolerate, even Malfoy hitting near the mark with his suggestion that the M.O.M. had recruited her for the forces of good but one of the things that Hermione had always been proud of was in question here and she would now defend it and sod the consequences she thought. Assuming her most intimidating face she looked at Malfoy and said,  
  
"As I believe I have mentioned before I know about more powerful magic than you could ever hope to and have no qualms about using it on jumped up Slytherins who insult my intelligence by suggesting I didn't know that you have been following me around the school and have even tried to enter my new rooms several times without success," surprisingly enough considering the strong protection spells keyed to voice recognition and your voice most certainly isn't one of the voices I have taught the spell. As Malfoy stood there thinking about this statement she turned and swept down the final straight and into Snape's classroom, cast a no-entry spell over her shoulder and called  
  
"Professor I'm ready, and tired and hungry so can we please get on with this?"  
  
Only then did she realise there was more than one person sitting in the classroom, "Oh. "  
  
  
  
A/N: WOW bit late, never mind chapter six should be easy now and please enjoy this and tell me if you did (it would be nice to average more than one review a month, is that self-centered? Yes? Never mind.) 


	6. Reports and Recurrences

All characters and subject matter taken from and used in the following are from Harry Potter and therefore owned by J. K. Rowling.

A/N: Dear lord, I apologise profusely for the lack of updates… my beta reader has apparently decided she doesn't want to be my beta reader any more by virtue of the fact that I had to update chapter five without her input… so if I have any fans who are better at English than I am then feel free to correct me and even apply for the job as beta reader. I don't hold it against SS that she stopped god knows we are all very busy with the evil of exams at the moment so… I'm flying solo and here goes.

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"Hermione my dear, don't worry about Alastor, he's here to teach you some things that I thought better be taught by a true expert as opposed to me, the pupil of the pupil of the expert."

Hermione was shocked; she had never heard Severus give anyone such a frank assessment of his own skills. She realised that it wasn't only his students that Severus was absolutely truthful with, it was himself too. This would give her something to think about, but not now because currently Severus was asking her about what she had learnt last night. She eyed Mad-eye Moody carefully and began.

"First of all you must realise that because I was on my own with three men it was very difficult to get them to do anything but make jokes about women not knowing anything about sport, honestly sometimes men are so…" she trailed off as she realised she was out numbered by two particularly dangerous members of that part of the human race.

"Hmmm yes, so after a few drinks I managed to get the boys on to the subject of what they would be doing in the department. I mentioned the fact that I wanted to join the department, and that I was worried about the stability of the other departments what with Voldemort getting stronger." Here a curious gaze from Severus interrupted her.

"I hope you didn't phrase it exactly like that," He said disapprovingly, "it would be most unwise to show any allegiance to either side when you are trying to ascertain exactly where unknowns loyalties lie."

"I most certainly didn't. I said it with the utmost tact and diplomacy and didn't manage to rub anyone up the wrong way." _Unlike you _she considered adding, however she continued her report with, "Needless to say the two Slytherins pounced on a chance to discuss politics, they should really add that to the list of traits in the sorting categories at Hogwarts. Anyway, I digress, the two boys from Slytherin discussed with me the likelihood of an uprising in the near future and the effect it would have on the Department of Magical Games and Sports and the international relations on which the department is based on. Anyway I managed to get them to talk about the particularly tricky subject of their death eater sympathies whilst we had dinner, the first was easy to play, he told me that he would be joining the lower ranks of the minions of the dark-lord any time now. To be honest I think he was trying to recruit me!" Here she paused because she sensed that Sev was going to say something.

"Hermione you didn't flat out refuse did you? That could have serious side effects on the work we have you doing in that department." He said with a disapproving and worried look and an even more disapproving tone.

"Professor," at this Severus again interrupted:

"It's Severus outside of school hours, Hermione, you know that."

"Sorry, but I felt I needed to emphasise that any mistake I made could not possibly be entirely my fault, when a student is wrong, the teacher is blamed and therefore if I made a mistake…" Hermione left the end of this offensive statement hanging knowing quite well that if she so much as looked at Alastor moody she would burst out laughing at the fact that she had just dared to criticise Professor Severus Snape's Teaching skills.

"Miss Granger," Snape exploded and then stopped, realising that she was merely pointing out that it was probably impossible for her to make a mistake due to his high level of teaching skills and also her high level of intelligence. Severus adjusted his tone and continued in a less explosive voice, "We both know that no mistake could be made in that way so please continue."

"Thank you Severus. If you really want to know I managed to give him the idea that someone of a higher rank in The Dark Lord's followers had already propositioned me, and as a lesser minion he was over stepping the mark. Or a mark at least." At this Hermione stopped, took a deep breath and smiled a self assured little smile, "It must be said I never realised exactly how easy it would be to put a thought into someone's mind until I actually had practice at it." She paused as she realised that both men were looking at her with considerably worried looks. "Don't worry Severus, I haven't gone all power mad on you. I don't plan on doing it again. It took too much energy up the first time!" Here she realised that she had been standing giving this report as if she was on trial. Having thought about it she took out her wand and drew up a chair, quite literally given that she was a witch and the easiest way for her to get herself a chair was to create one by directly transfiguring the air molecules into molecules of wood. This, therefore, required her to create an outline of the chair to contain the spell within those bounds. As she did this she remembered her first attempt at this extremely complex spell, she had managed to create a distinctly odd looking chair because she had been distracted by Harry's latest Quidditch obsession (The fact that he had now perfected the Wronski Feint and many people had been congratulating him on it!) and had left a small hole in her outline, creating a leak of the spell and therefore a line of wood between the chair and next area of non-air molecules, the wall. This caused the chair to hang bizarrely in mid-air until she could remember the counter spell.

Memories aside she knew that this day was going to be a long one, so, taking a deep breath, she summoned up courage and continued with her report. Having given the boring details of how she had managed to get the next Slytherin to talk about his loyalties – not decided but, his parents are both in Voldemort's grip, so it is more than likely he'll will join the minor death eaters. She continued to her talks with the Ravenclaw boy.

"He was more troublesome," she started after pausing to think of a phrase to sum him up, "he decided straight off that I was his property, and therefore he could **touch** me when ever he wanted. It was a little upsetting but the worst was when," Here she stuttered, unable to think of the correct words to sum up his outrageous behaviour, and to help herself bite back the…

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A/N: I am aware that leaving this there is a completely evil cliffhanger, but I need the cliffhanger, because otherwise no one will read my next chapter. R&R please. I haven't had a review in ages and am beginning to feel unloved. Thank you anyway!


	7. Information and Intrigue

All characters and subject matter taken from and used in the following are from Harry Potter and therefore owned by J. K. Rowling.

A/N: Dear lord, I apologise profusely for the lack of updates… my beta reader has apparently decided she doesn't want to be my beta reader any more by virtue of the fact that I had to update chapter five without her input… so if I have any fans who are better at English than I am then feel free to correct me and even apply for the job as beta reader. I don't hold it against SS that she stopped god knows we are all very busy with the evil of exams at the moment so… I'm flying solo and here goes. You'll have to remind yourself of my previous entry, due to the nature of the ending.

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Laughter that threatened to engulf her being. Composing herself, she continued with her report about the troublesome boy,

"Despite his enormous ego, I doubt we have any trouble from him. He may have been at good wizard at Hogwarts, and he may well still be a fairly good _technical_ wizard, but he's never going to be more than a minor in the ranks, if they even pick up on his leanings. He simply hasn't the imagination to become a good evil killer." As she said the last three words she realised both of the men opposite her were looking incredulous at the statement.

"Don't tell me you don't agree? It takes more than murderous intent to become a death eater, or we'd be overrun with the things. Severus, you don't expect me to believe that you are going to tell me my judgement of this," here she paused for breath because once again laughter was threatening to distract her from her retelling of the event. "Dear me, if that boy ever manages to stop chasing after women, it will only be long enough to check that his wand is still in his pocket and his new broom is still tethered outside. He's impossibly shallow and wouldn't make for a good death eater even under imperio!"

After that the two men laughed, and agreed that if Hermione had such a strong feeling on the matter then it was probably right. They spent the rest of the night practising the new techniques Moody had to offer and, when he left, Sev and Hermione managed a heavier one to one about the night before. Especially in reference to the dinner they had both attended after the party. Hermione had been playing drunken innocent young lady all evening so it had been nice to return to the sophisticated dinner party where no one would notice the change. They hadn't learned much from the dinner party, except for confirming their already fairly alert fears that something was happening in the next week that both Hermione and Sev were going to be forced into the middle of.

Finally, at five o'clock in the afternoon, with a slightly overtired look on her face and a truly empty stomach Hermione left the potion's lab, dispelling both the silence and no-entry spells it was necessary to have over the lab.

"May I walk you back to your room Hermione?" Sev asked gently as she yawned and muttered to herself.

"Actually I was going to go and see Harry." She replied decisively, "Also if too many people see us talking it might be possible to think that I don't hate you. And that would be the worst thing for my cover, surely?" She questioned as an afterthought.

"Of course," Sev smirked, "I'll certainly not endanger your cover anymore, see you tomorrow?" He turned and swept away without waiting for a reply to his question.

'Dammit!' She thought, 'He always gets the last word, and he knows when he's got me. We do see each other too much considering me and the boys are supposed to hate him.' She continued on this vein of thought for sometime, only stopping when she realised that her inattentive wanderings had lead her to the kitchens. She went in through the passageway behind a bowl of fruit, intending to seek out Dobby and some of his delicious cream buns. Instead she found uproar, Professors Dumbledore and Flitwick and a variety of interesting plates, all of which were singing. Before anyone could notice her she turned and pushed out of the painting, and hurried away from the scene, it wouldn't have done for Either Professor to see her, Flitwick would have had to ensure a penalty to her house, and Dumbledore would have had to reprimand her for having contact with people who knew her true identity without reason.

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A/N A bit more info, and a lot more intrigue, I think you'll agree. Now some reviews would be nice, and I'll try and get chapter 7 up next week sometime. HGS was on the back burner for a while, but she's back on target because I use her as practise for my real Novel, which is only just beginning. TTFN!


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